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The UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE for SEPTEMBER, 1792 161

An Account of KEDDLESTONE HALL, in Derbyshire, the Seat of Lord SCARSDALE: With a Perspective View of that magnificent Manfion.

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EDDLESTONE HALL, the feat of lord Scarfdale, is one of the finest houses in the kingdom. The principal front is beautiful; it extends three hundred and fixty feet, confifting of a centre, and two wings of pavilions. The portico is light, and confifts of fix very fine pillars, which fupport the tympanum, at the points of which are ftatues. The garden front is a very uncommon one, but light; the centre has no window in it, but four pillars project from the wall, and fupport as many ftatues; between them are niches with ftatues in them also.

The Egyptian hall is a very noble room; and has in it a very magnificent range of Corinthian columns-of Derbyshire marble. Here are two statues, one of Apollo, and the other of Meleager. The chimney-pieces are of flatuary marble, one of which reprefents the rape of the Sabines, by Michael Angelo, and the other the continence of Scipio, by the fame maiter.

The north mufic room is thirty-fix feet long, by twenty-four wide, and twenty-two feet high, finished with ftucco, an Ionic entablature, antique ceiling, compartments and ornaments. The chimney-piece is of ftatuary marble. Among the paintings here are Bacchus and Ariadne, a very capital piece, by Guido; the temple of Flora, by Viviano; an old man's head, the expreffion of which is remarkably fine, by Rembrandt; and the Roman charity, by fignora Pozzi. The drawing-room is hung with blue damafk, antique ceiling, coved, and very elegant. A Venetian window, and the door-cafes, are finely finished with Corinthian columns in alabafter. The chimney-piece is of ftatuary marble. The cornice is fupported by two whole length female figures, very neatly executed. The VOL. XCI.

tablet in the frize is virtue rewarded with riches and honour, in baffo-relievo. Among the paintings in this room are Olympia and Orlando, by Annibal Caracci; there is great expreffion in these figures, the attitudes are ftrong, and the colouring fine; the death of the Virgin, by Raphael; Jupiter and Io, by Andrea Sacchi; a Magdalen, by Annibal Caracci; a holy family, by Raphael; another by Guido.

The library is thirty-fix feet long by twenty-four broad, and twentytwo high. The ceiling is Mofaic; the chimney-piece of ftatuary marble, Doric columns, with bases to support the cornice. Among the paintings here are Adam and Eve, by Carlo Lotti; Lot and his daughter, by the fame mafter; Daniel interpreting to Nebuchadnezzar, by Rembrandt; Rinaldo and Armida, by Nicholas Pouffin; and Andromeda chained to the rock, by Guido.

The faloon is a very elegant room, a circle, forty-two feet diameter, in which are fome good paintings and very fine ftatues.

The dining-room is finished with ftucco; the ceiling painted, and very elegant. In the circles are Europe, Afia, Africa, and America; in the middle circle Love embracing Fortune; in the oblong fquare, the four feafons, expreffed by the Triumphs of Venus, Apollo, Bacchus, and Eolus: the whole executed in a very neat and elegant manner. The chimney-piece is of ftatuary marble. The glaffes are elegant, and the flabs of Sienna marble. Among the paintings in this room are, Hagar and Ishmael, by Ciro Ferri; a landfcape by Claude Lorrain; and two landfcapes from Milton's Allegro, by Zuccarelli.

In the family pavilion are an antiroom and a breakfast room, finished with fresco paintings and antique or X

naments,

naments, after the baths of Dioclefian.

There are feveral landscapes in lady Scarfdale's dreffing-room, and good paintings in fome of the other rooms. The architecture of Keddlestone is light and pleafing, and it is, upon the whole, a very noble house. The environs are finished in a manner equal to the buildings. In the front of the house, for a confiderable extent, is a fine winding river. The lawns hang very well to the water, and are bounded by woods of noble oaks, in a most pleafing manner. The approach from Derby is through one of these woods, and the road leaving it, you gain an oblique view of the house; but entering another very fine wood, it is loft; and on coming out of the dark grove, you break at once on the house, backed with spreading plantations, which have a noble effect. The water. winds before it through the vale in the most agreeable manner. You command both the reaches that form the island, and move up to the house over a fine bridge of three large arches.

From the garden front lady Scarfdale has traced with great tafte a pleafure ground-a winding lawn decorated with trees, fhrubs, and great knots of wood, and a gravel walk through it it winds up the vale between two hills to the right; is parted from the park on each fide by a funk fence; and as the scattered trees and clumps are prettily varied, they let in, as the walk rifes on the hill, very

picturesque views of the lake and the adjoining woods. It rifes to the fummit, and there commands a very noble profpect of all the adjacent country. You look down into the park vale, with a large river winding through it, accompanied with spreading lawns, and bounded by very noble woods of oak. Around the whole is a vast range of waving hills, broken into inclosures of a good verdure, and hanging to the eye in various fweeps.

This magnificent feat, which is fituated about four miles from Derby, was built by the prefent lord Scarfdale, from a defign by the ingenious Mr. Adams, and will long remain a menument of the fkill of the architect and the munificence of his lordship. Very few buildings excel this in point of fituation, magnificence, and conveniences of every kind. This spot has been, for ages, the refidence of the Curzon family; and the church, which nearly touches the house, affords fome ancient, and many modern monuments, all to the memory of the Curzons. Two of the latter deferve particular examination, both for the beauty of the defigns and elegance of the fculptor. The outfide of this church attracts the attention of travellers, from the circumftance of its being totally covered with ivy; it really makes a very fingular appearance; and even the windows of the tower are clofed up by it; but this ivy will, in time, destroy its fupport.

SELICO; an AFRICAN TALE: From French of M. Florian.'

F, as the Perfians affert, we might believe that the univerfe is in fubjection to two principles, of which one does the little good which is confpicuous, and the other the evil every where fo abundant, we should be inclined to believe that Africa is the place where the evil principle, in a particular manner, exercifes his power. No portion of the globe produces fuch variety of poisons, fo many wild beafts

New Tales from the

and venomous reptiles. The little which we know of the hiftory of Morocco, of the negroes of Ardra, of Jaggas, the native inhabitants of the coafts, as far as the country of the Hottentots, bears a remarkable refemblance to the natural history of lions, panthers, and ferpents, which are fo worthy of partaking this parching region with the cannibal princes which fell and eat the flesh of their

prisoners.

prifoners. In the midst of these difgufting and horrible fcenes, where fome fell their children, and others eat their captives, we fometimes may discover traces of natural juftice, of genuine virtue, of conftancy in fuffering, and a generous contempt of death. These examples, rare as they may be, are fufficient to intereft us in this degraded part of the human fpecies, to make us remember that they ftill are men just as in a barren defart, a few folitary blades of verdure, which the traveller is from time to time delighted to discover, fuffice to convince him that he still treads upon the earth.

In the kingdom of Juida, fituated on the coaft of Guinea, beyond the Cape of three points, and not far from Sabi, its capital, there lived, in the year 1727, a poor widow, named Darina; he was the mother of three fons, whom she had brought up with a tenderness fortunately common in human nature, but very uncommon in the climates where children are confidered as an article of trade, and fold for flaves by their unfeeling parents. The eldest of these was called Guberi; the fecond Teloa; and the youngest Selico. All of these were amiable and fenfible; they adored their good mother, who, now grown old and infirm, lived only by their industry. The wealth of this family confifted only of a hut, in which they lived together, with a little field contiguous, the maize of which was their fupport. Every morning, taking it by turns, one of the three brothers went to the chace, another worked in the field, the third remained at home with their mother in the evening they met; the huntfman produced his partridges, parrot, or perhaps a little honey; the husbandman brought fuel, while he who stayed at home provided their common meat. They fupped affectionately together, contending who should be most attentive to their mother: they received her blefling, and reclining upon ftraw, by the fide of each other, they went to fleep, expecting the morrow.

Selico, the youngest of the brethren, went often to the town to carry the firft fruits of the harvest, the offering of this poor family, to the temple of the great divinity of their country. This god, it is well known, is a huge ferpent of that fpecies which are not venomous, and do no injury; on the contrary, they deftroy thofe ferpents which are venomous; and they are fo venerated at Juida, that it is confidered as a horrible crime to put one to death. Thus the number of these facred ferpents has multiplied without end in the midft of their towns and villages, and, even within houfes, one meets, at every step, these deities, who come familiarly to feed at the tables of their worshippers, fleeping. near their fires, and producing their young upon their beds; which laft is confidered by them as the happiest of omens.

Of all the negroes of Juida, Selico was the blackeft, the best made, and the most amiable. In the temple of their great deity he had seen the young Beriffa, daughter to the chief priest, who, by her figure, her beauty, and her grace, was far fuperior to all her companions, Selico conceived a paffion for her, and was beloved in return. Every Friday, the day facred among the negroes to repofe and religion, the young lover appeared at the temple, paffed the day in the fociety of his dear Beriffa, told her of his mother, his tender paffion, and of the happiness they should enjoy when united in marriage. Beriffa did not appear to conceal that the equally defired this moment to arrive; and the venerable Farulho, her father, who approved of the connection, promised, with embraces, foon to reward their tenderness.

At length this period, so anxiously expected, drew nigh. The day was fixed; the mother of Selico and the two brothers had made ready the hut for the young couple, when the famous Truro Audati, king of Dahomai, whofe rapid victories have been celebrated even in Europe, invading the kingdom of Ardra, exterminating

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the inhabitants, and advancing at the head of his formidable army, was checked only by the great river which bounded the realms of the fovereign of Juida. This laft, a weak and timid prince, governed by his women and his minifters, did not think even of collecting a few troops to oppofe the conqueror. He believed that the deities of the country knew well enough how to defend the entrance, and carried to the banks of the river all the facred ferpents that could be got together. The prince of Dahomai, furprised and indignant at having only reptiles to combat, threw himself into the stream with his troops, and gained the oppofite bank; and very foon thefe gods, from whom miracles were expected, were cut to pieces, roafted on the fire, and devoured by the conquerors. Then the king of Juida, thinking that nothing elfe could fave him, abandoned his capital, and haftened to conceal himfelf in a remote island. The warriors of Audati spread themselves every where, carrying with them fire and fword. They burned the crops, towns, and villages, and maffacred without mercy all that they could find.

Terror difperfed the few inhabitants who escaped the carnage. The three brothers, on the approach of the conquerors, had taken their mother on their fhoulders and haftened to conceal themselves in the woods. Selico would not leave Darina while fhe was expofed to the smallest danger; but the moment he faw her in fafety, trembling for the fate of Beriffa, he flew to Sabi, to fave or perith with her. Sabi was taken by the Dahomians. The ftreets flowed with blood! the houses were plundered and deftroyed: the palace of the king and the temple of the ferpent were nothing but fmoaking ruins, covered with dead bodies, whofe heads, according to cuftom, the barbarians had carried away. The wretched Selico in defpair, and wishing for death, ventured many times among the foldiers intoxicated with brandy and

blood! Every where did Selico rufh amid the horrid fcenes, feeking Beriffa and Farulho, pronouncing their names forrowfully aloud, and unable to recognize their bodies among fo many mutilated trunks!

After dedicating five days to this terrible fearch, doubting not but that Beriffa and her father had become the victims of the ferocious Dahomians, Selico determined to return to his mother. He found her in the wood where he had left her with his brothers. The fixed forrow of Selico, his manner, and his wild looks, terrified this unhappy family! Darina lamented his misfortune, and tried various confolations; to all of which her fon was infenfible. He refused all nourishment, and feemed determined to expire by famine. Guberi and Teloa did not attempt to diffuade him by argument and reafon, but they pointed to their venerable parent, who had neither houfe nor bread, nor any thing left but her children. They demanded of him, whether at that fight he had not the courage to live?

Selico promifed that he would, and forced himself to think of nothing but of dividing with his two brothers the tender attentions which they paid their parent. They plunged into the woods, went fill farther from Sabi, built themselves a hut in a remote valley, and thought of fupplying by the chace, the maize and the vegetables which they were without.

Deprived of their bows and arrows, and of all their other neceffaries, which they had no time to carry away, they foon began to feel the extreme of mifery. Fruits were in thefe forefts rarely to be found, where the prodigious number of apes were always prepared to difpute them with the three brothers. The earth produced nothing but grafs. They had no inftrument to turn, nor grain to plant it. The rainy feafon came on, and the horrors of famine attacked them. The poor mother, ftill in mifery, reclining upon a bed of dry leaves, was ready to expire, but without a com

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